At the beginning of the day, it’s easy to look at your to-do list and feel overwhelmed. Every item on that list represents something you need to do, and you’re not sure you can get through it all.

But you have a resource for dealing with your tasks: time. And a to-do list does a really crappy job of representing that. Sure, you have a clock. And a calendar. But neither of those give you a tangible sense of how much time you’ve got for accomplishing things – how much time you have left today.

You know what does? LEGOs.

The Pomolego Technique

For a few months, I’ve felt like LEGOs are essential to doing my job. I might be insane – my roommate certainly thought so. But it works for me.

Why LEGOs? Because I have a box of them. Because they’re perfect for the absent-minded fidgeting I do while writing.

But which timer you use doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that you work for uninterrupted 25-minute time periods, followed by five minute breaks. After four such sessions, you can take a longer break – typically, 15 minutes. The idea is to keep you distractions isolated to the breaks, and to focus only on particular tasks during your work sessions.

What’s this have to do with LEGO? Everything. I have, on my desk, five stacks of four standard bricks. I also have a little car.

Every stack of four represents two hours – every individual brick represents 25 minutes of uninterrupted work. At the beginning of each day, I look at my calendar and work out how many uninterrupted sessions I have time for. Based on this, I set an appropriate number of bricks aside – then work out how many of my tasks I can accomplish using them.

With that done I get to work, 25 minutes at a time. When I complete a session, I add one of my bricks to the car – in whatever shape I feel like.

That’s the system. What does this do for me?

Acts as a counterpoint to my to-do list. Sure, I have a lot I need to get done, but the bricks are a tangible reminder that I have time – a fact I find easy to forget.

Makes my time tangible. There’s something about looking at, picking up, and interacting with bricks that can make something abstract – time – feel concrete. My chimp brain thinks “eight hours” means I can fool around for the next three, then work for five. The bricks make time seem more like a commodity I need to ration appropriately.

Puts my time spent into context. It’s easy, when not every task is accomplished, to feel like you’ve wasted a day. Seeing a car full of bricks reminds me of the effort I spent – the time I was completely focused. If all that wasn’t enough, maybe I’m trying to do too much – and need to re-think my planning.

Gives me something to fidget with. It’s more important than you might think, at least for me.

There are variations of the above system you could create, of course.

Use Your Time Wisely

I’m not saying everyone should immediately go out and buy LEGOs if they want to be productive. I’m only saying this is the system that’s ultimately helped me get more out of the time I have.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by what you need to get done, remember: you have time. A good chunk of the web is designed to take as much of that time away from you as possible, which is why it might be helpful to block time wasting websites. More than that, though, you need to decide that you want to use your time to accomplish things – then work out a system for doing that. You’ll enjoy your down time more if you do.

What unlikely tools do you use to keep focused? Let me know in the comments below.

Proc Rastinator

Susan Lasky

February 28, 2014

As an ADHD, Productivity and Organization Coach I am always looking for ways to make time management more tangible – to turn the abstract concept of time into do-able blocks – and here you have a system using real blocks. How terrific! It allows you to see how much you actually accomplish (pile on the car). I can even see using different colored legos to represent either types of projects or level of efficiency/productivity. And as someone who struggles with this myself, I actually think I might try the PomoLego technique – thanks, Justin!

Oswaldo Bellido

Dave

February 28, 2014

The plural of Lego is Lego. There is no added s. Just like sheep.

Anonymous

February 28, 2014

Pedantic much?

Justin P

February 28, 2014

I took it as a polite suggestion.

I’m North American, and have always said LEGOs. This morning the MakeUseOf staff chatroom was people from all around the world telling me I’m wrong. I found it fascinating, I’d never heard that before. Language is awesome.

Dave P

February 28, 2014

Us Daves know all about LEGO, it would seem.

Tom W

March 1, 2014

I had never heard anyone use “LEGOs” until recently. I just thought it was a deliberate geek subculture thing.

Kathleen

Saikat B

February 28, 2014

Just an idea here, but you can also equate the color of the LEGO brick with the task. For instance: if I am trying to write a 1000 word article within a few Pomodoros, I can keep track of my performance by using the bricks as color codes. Works? Don’t know, will try out :)

Nice post, Justin.

Justin P

February 28, 2014

I do this sometimes too! I’ll write tasks on my white board in the colour corresponding to the bricks. Sometimes.

Guillermo Ruiz

Lana

March 1, 2014

Here’s a thought to ponder… Psychology and Pedagogy will argue against the Pomodoro 25-minute increment. The reason 25 minutes is selected is because, +5, it equals a fabricated half-hour. Howevever, studies show that 20 minutes is the waning just past the peak of of learning or performance. But wouldn’t it make sense to push five more minutes to the 25 minute mark? Not necessarily, say some psychologists; we are more able to re-enter work that we were excited about rather than pushed to finish? Teachers will tell you the 20 minute mark, for whatever reason, works.

Justin P

March 1, 2014

25 minutes keeps working for me, but it certainly can be flexible.

Kelsey T

March 1, 2014

Lana, as one who has had many, many public speaking opportunities, I can attest that 20 minutes is the magic number when you’re trying to hold someone’s attention. It’s the point beyond which in a lecture where an amazing amount of fidgeting begins. 8)

Kelsey T

March 1, 2014

And that grammar structure proves that though I can speak, my writing is shaky. 3)

Justin P

Ron

March 1, 2014

I’ve been using Sticky STARS on a calendar to help visualize “Tomatoes Accomplished” but I really like the idea of including touch and the satisfaction of clicking two lego bricks together – and with 2 boys under 6, there are lots of Legos hanging around my home office!
If anyone is looking for a great timer for their Mac OS, “Tadam” is a favourite (http://tadamapp.com)! Simple, visually appealing, works best with the Pomodoro Technique.
Happy PomoLego-ing everyone!

Nicole H

Justin P

This was the main lesson of writing this article: that I am wrong about pluralizing – and so is everyone I ever knew as a child.

Nicole H

March 4, 2014

I can’t help my pedantic ways. It’s a compulsion.

Justin P

March 4, 2014

Don’t worry, I think it’s interesting. I just sincerely had no idea, and the AP stylebook is lacking in Lego knowledge.

Nicole H

March 5, 2014

Ah see but the pedant strikes back – it’s a brand name and should always be written thus: LEGO. This one always stirs debate!

Janna Venard Pyle

April 16, 2014

The truth is that in America we have made the brand name into a household name for such items and then dropped the word “bricks” and just pluralized the new noun. There is a word for that but I can’t remember it off hand. For example, people don’t say “Will you hand me a facial tissue” they say “Will you hand me a kleenex”. Kleenex is actually a brand, but we call any brand of facial tissues “kleenex”. With legos, the completely appropriate plural term would be “Lego bricks” so instead of saying “Go play with your legos” we should be saying “Go play with your Lego bricks” because the term “Lego” only denotes a particular company, NOT the product they sell. We have associated the company name with the product and made it a new noun. So, my son and hubby and I will still play with our legos (Lego brand bricks and the Megablock bricks that work with them too) and have many hours of fun with said legos.

Deshawn Wilkins

Unbelievable stuff. I am really stacking Lego in front of my desktop. My colleagues think I am totally lost. But who cares- it works pretty well so far.

Hey thanks for sharing.

Justin P

March 4, 2014

Not all who Lego are lost.

Nicole H

April 16, 2014

Janna – I assumed that was the case, and in fairness Hoover has become a common noun in the UK. I just personally really dislike the way it looks and sounds. When brand names become common nouns brand trademarks can be adversely affected so I try to steer clear. I guess the most common global example of this is Google, which has become an adjective. Google finally let that one go a few years ago though.